Our first 45 days on Steam. It’s an important milestone because it’s our first release on a major portal, outside the safety of dedicated RPG sites. I wasn’t sure how well the game would be received by a wider audience and whether or not they would enjoy it or reject it outright.

So far the reception’s been very and surprisingly positive, so we spent less time in the trenches dealing with complaints and more time processing feedback and planning updates. We’re aiming to update the game every month, which means that we have to work on the rest of the game while simultaneously improving the early access areas and making everything better and then much better.

Overall, the feedback can be summed up as “More!” which is encouraging. Namely, more quests (especially non-combat quests for loremasters, thieves, and grifters) and more characters to talk to in general. In fact, more characters to talk to (and more worldbuilding) is request #1.

We agree, of course, that Maadoran should have a lot more content and be a busy city with history and secrets and we’ll do our best to deliver, one update at a time.

The January update will feature:

- Achievements so that we can see how people play the game, what they do, and how far they get- A little adventure for loremasters, a storyteller at the local inn, and a caravan master. - Quest tweaks – now you can loot the Crimson Eye artefact from Gaelius’ body or get it from Serenas, if you manage to convince him that he shouldn’t fear magic. This will open the tower of Zamedi to assassins, thieves, and praetors. - The healing machine placeholder has finally been replaced with the real thing; our apologies for the inconvenience.- Training from Kemnebi and Erebus.- Bug fixes and performance improvements

And finally some trivia:

We sold 1,200 copies in 2 weeks (since the last update), which isn’t bad, considering all the Christmas and New Year sales – many thanks for the support.

7,194 people downloaded the demo and 549 people bought the game after – 7.6% conversion rate

We made a mistake counting locations somewhere (yes, I’m THAT absent-minded). Not 10 but 12 locations will be added:

Ganezzar – the town that will check your Sanity stat.Inferiae – an aptly named village sitting on top what the locals consider the underworld and offer human sacrifice to. Guess, who’s gonna be that sacrifice? Yes, you. The portal – not what you think. PS. Bring the Ghost Hand if you have one. Hellgate – the "temple" in the mountains mentioned by Esbenus and Domitius.An ancient factory – if you managed to get Antidas’ carefully guarded mantra, it will come in handy there. Caer-Tor – the Imperial Guards' headquartersThe dead river – mentioned by DomitiusAl-Akia where everything startedThe ziggurat you were asked to find

The Library of Saross mentioned by Abukar the Mad and featured in one of the past updatesAemolas' village – time to get his money The fortified bridge where the healer in Maadoran wants you to go

The last 3 locations on that list will be released in March.

As always, we would like to thank you for your support, help, and patience. Neither the game not this fledgling studio wouldn't exist without you. Happy New Year and best wishes to you and your families!

Maybe I should have known based on that now cancelled Iron Tower Game-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but it wasn't until the extended demo with Abukar the Mad and some of the game lore gathered in Zamedi that I realized just how much Lovecraftian influence AoD has.

You can talk to Gaelius' loremaster about it but at the moment the option is available only during the thieves' assassination quest. We'll extend it to praetors as well. I can't think of a reason why anyone else would be allowed there. Maybe a loremaster with high prestige?

It does seem like Loremasters would have a vested interest in the painting. They also have -- well, at least it seems to me -- a pretty natural inclination towards working for Gaelius; sure, they could join up with the Thieves' Guild, or the Imperial Guard, or the Merchants, but at least on the surface none of these factions have much interest in unearthing the secrets of the past*, which one would imagine to be the chief concern of at least some (obviously not all, Feng being a wonderful counter-example) Loremasters. Employment with Gaelius, though, is arrived at by just... showing up at a place where people need the services of a legit Loremaster and proving your chops. In general, the whole Gaelius questline just screams "LOREMASTER" to me, so it would be nice to see that Lore-centric painting side quest tied in to it.

*Thieves do eventually get at least a tangential ride in to that territory, in Maadoran, but there's no particular reason, based on the Guild's actions in Teron, to see that coming.

And on the subject of Loremasters, which have become a minor obsession of mine... has there been any thought given to altering/expanding the options that lead to breaking in to Antidas' fancy display case? It's something that I've brought up on the Steam forums, but at the risk of being obnoxious, I thought I would again: currently the Display Room can't even be accessed by a character without the requisite physical stats for climbing/grappling up to the roof. Would there be any chance of characters gaining the option to get in by other means? Obviously it should still require a skilled and particular character to access the room and open the box, but I think it would be brilliant to see someone be able at least to arrive at the room by way of Disguise/Streetwise/Lockpick instead of Throwing/climbing/Sneak/Critical Strike/Lockpick.

Consider it a suggestion offered humbly, and because the world of this game has just given me so damn many ideas for characters that I'm perhaps too attached to.

All that aside, this new update is super exciting. Really can't wait to see the new content. You're all doing fantastic work; I've been following the game's development for about two years now, and it's thrilling to see you all so close to the final product. Cheers.

You can talk to Gaelius' loremaster about it but at the moment the option is available only during the thieves' assassination quest. We'll extend it to praetors as well. I can't think of a reason why anyone else would be allowed there. Maybe a loremaster with high prestige?

To HA praetors only? What about HD-praetor with good relationship with Serenas at the end of Maadoran HD questline? End of MG questline may be good too. Also, it can be additional option in Lorenza's offer for assassins.